I was so happy to see your cookie-photos! Fi-na-lly you were able to bake again :)
I hope you and your family had a beautiful Christmas night yesterday.
With us here, it all went well. We all were rather nervous, because everything was different this year without my grandma, who always used to be the "master of ceremony". You know, her death is still so incredibly closeby, and it was hard on all of us that she wasn't with us. Still, we stuck to our beautiful and beloved tradtitions. First we all wished each other 3 wishes for the coming year. Every one of us gets a baking wafer (Backoblate) and tears three small pieces of the wafer of the person you are wishing the three wishes. Don't ask why exactly we have this tradition - no idea. It has always been like this in our family. Then, my grandma used to give a little speech, in which all our friends and family all over the world are thought of. This year, my dad took over this "task". Of course, Germany and Belgium were mentioned in his speech. These two traditions are the most emotional parts of the Holy Evening, many a tear is shed then. Afterwards we ate our delicious traditional christmas dinner: Steinpilzsuppe mit selbstgemachten Nudeln (porcino soup with homemade pasta). The pasta we used was the last batch my Grandma ever made. sigh. Afterwards, there were various salads, Karpfen ( carp fish - my very first time and I quite enjoyed it!), Schnitzel and rice and potato salad and bread and what not. After dinner, the 4 children (erm... aged 18-34) had to leave the room with the christmas tree and clean up the kitchen... until the little bell rang and the Christkind had arrived (=Papa incends the candles on the tree). Then we sang, beautifully, of course. Presenttime. The children (again 18-34) bring the present to the grown-ups. ah, childhood is such an expansible concept :)
Dessert follows. Here is were the pictures finally come in!
Traditionally, Oma made a Mohnkuchen, a rolled-up cake with poppy seed filling.
This year, my aunt and I made the cake together. We just couldn't imagine Christmas without it. Although we put slightly too little sugar in the filling and slightly too much filling in the cake (one of them tore up in the oven), the cake is very nice.
We are all sure that grandma watched us closely yesterday, because all the food was delicious. Before this year, we have never been allowed to do all these cooking tasks alone.
So, here's some Christmas feeling from Austria for you :)
Love, M.
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